(117a) Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Research Progress through the DOE/NETL Existing Plants Program

Coal-fired power plants have made significant progress in reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and now mercury (Hg), since the passage of the Clean Air Act. However, significant Congressional activity has been underway on legislation that would require a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. A potential solution for the reduction of emissions from coal fired power plants is the capture and subsequent storage of CO₂ in a geological formation (CCS). DOE/NETL's Existing Plants Program is focused on developing advanced CO₂ capture and compression technologies to aid in the development of the CCS process. The focus of the Existing Plants Program is driven by the fact that existing pulverized coal (PC) power plants produce a sizeable portion of current CO₂ emissions from all fossil-fuel-based sources, and that only about six gigawatts of the existing coal-fired electricity generating fleet is projected to retire by 2030. Current analysis indicates that state-of-the-art CO₂ capture technologies are not cost-effective technologies for capturing CO₂ from PC-based power plants. Also, these technologies have not been utilized on the scale required for CCS from a coal-fired power plant. The technologies being researched through the Existing Plants program aim at achieving a 90% capture rate while achieving no more than a 35% increase in the cost of electricity. This paper will give an update on the status of the program and recent progress of its post-combustion research projects.